Looking for Scheherezade video

[abdwybabe]

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a copy of this ballet? I love this ballet, love the score but have not been able to find it anywhere!

Thanks.

[Helene]

I've never seen the DVD, but there is a version of Scheherezade on the "Bolshoi Ballet - Return of the Firebird DVD" (along with Firebird and Petrushka. There's another on the "The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky / Sheherazade, La Spectre de la Rose, The Polovtsian Dances, The Firebird."

They are both available at amazon.com.

[abdwybabe]

THANK YOU HELENE!!!

I've never seen the DVD, but there is a version of Scheherezade on the "Bolshoi Ballet - Return of the Firebird DVD" (along with Firebird and Petrushka.  There's another on the "The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky / Sheherazade, La Spectre de la Rose, The Polovtsian Dances, The Firebird."

They are both available at amazon.com.

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[Joseph]

I have this DVD - it is great!

[richard53dog]

I've never seen the DVD, but there is a version of Scheherezade on the "Bolshoi Ballet - Return of the Firebird DVD" (along with Firebird and Petrushka.  There's another on the "The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky / Sheherazade, La Spectre de la Rose, The Polovtsian Dances, The Firebird."

They are both available at amazon.com.

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I have both these DVDs and like them both but for different reasons.

The Bolshoi Return of the Firebird is opened up like a movie with lots of added special effects. The dancing in the Sheherazade is sort of indifferent, but the film has a tremendous richness to it. Also in many ways it looks like a silent film, almost like the Thief of Bagdad. There is no sense of it being framed by a stage

Actually, this is not such a crazy idea I would guess to a limited event that some of the pieces Diaghelev had created and the cinema of the era cross polinated each other, how much, I don't know.

I also like the Kirov Nijinsky one, although many here weren't so positive about it.

But I'm happy with both discs.

Richard

[Marc Haegeman]

It's a shame that none of these two DVD releases has the complete score of "Scheherazade", though. The "Return of the Firebird" film has a very shortened 1st movement (which is normally played as a closed-curtain overture to the ballet), and the Kirov Nijinsky DVD omits it completely. For anyone loving the Rimsky Korsakov score this is disappointing.

[canbelto]

I also enjoy both dvd's, although if forced I'd have to say that Zakharova/Ruzimatov are the superior pairing. Both dvd's also have interesting Firebirds: Ananiashvilli on the "Return of the Firebird" and Diana Vishneva on the "Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky." I wouldnt be without either firebird, although Vishneva's interpretation is a little more untraditional.

[Joseph]

Yes, Marc, I agree about the music cuts. That is one of the reasons that I bought the DVD, I love the music in the beginning!

[Marc Haegeman]

Yes, Marc, I agree about the music cuts. That is one of the reasons that I bought the DVD, I love the music in the beginning!

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Quite, Joseph. After all in the theatre, the Mariinsky Orchestra playing this music is usually one of the highlights of their "Scheherazade". That the first movement was totally cut on the DVD release is hard to understand.

[dido]

When the Bolshoi came to Boston and played the "closed curtain" first movement the (packed) audience up around where I was sitting (nosebleeds) was totally, 100% not interested in the music (we were variously talking, standing up to stretch legs, talking about the casting, involuntarily picturing those talking and standing being engulfed by flames, falling under the wheels of buses, etc.).

Perhaps a reason for this barbaric cut?